Styloid Process; older than we know?

Researchers have just recently found a 1.4 million year old fossil of a bone in the hand called the “styloid process”. This bone exists to increase the pressure of our grip as it connects our middle finger to our wrists and as a result we are able to build and use complex tools. The fascinating thing about this find is that it dates back over 500,000 years before scientists had thought it existed in the human lineage. “Early members of Homo, there were some late-surviving members of Australopithecus still around — close relatives of humans that don't seem to have this adaptation," said study lead author Carol Ward, an anatomist and paleoanthropologist at the University of Missouri. "This raises the question of how important our hands were in the success of our lineage and the extinction of their lineage (Australopithecus)."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/human-hand-fossil-tool-making_n_4455315.html?ir=Science